Love Is
by Amaniachwen
Summary: Hello, all, it's Tokka Time Again! If you've read my work before, you probably know what to expect. If you haven't read it before, then maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised. Either way, please give this a chance, & I'll keep the chapters coming!
1. Destruction of Self

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Chapter 1

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Love Is...

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...Destruction of Self

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Sokka stumbled into the bar, utterly dazed. Each lock of his hair looked as stunned as its owner, splaying off his shoulders in a messy array. _Where the hell did that come from?_ was the only thought circling his mind at this point, mere minutes after the event as he now found himself. Not that he had any sense of time right now. He just knew that he and Suki were supposed to be meeting Aang and the gang for dinner when the bomb had landed. No, it wasn't just a bomb. It was total and complete eruption, distruction, of…of _everything_.

_What. The. Hell._

He somehow managed by a series of confused questions from the maître d' to convey that he himself was Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe checking in for reservations under the name "The Avatar" and that the rest of his party were soon to arrive. The maître d' led him to a large round table in the center of the restaurant, where he pulled out a seat for him to assume. Sokka could only stare blankly at the chair, wasted as his brain was after the befuddled question and answer session, and only sat down after the maître d' gave a polite cough.

Standing or sitting, it didn't make a difference. His posture didn't change anything. He was still facing the reality before him, though his immediate surroundings barely blipped on his register, even when Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Mai arrived.

"Sokka, you're early! That's a surprise!" Katara said brightly. "Don't tell me you've been starving yourself all day just to be a glutton here on Aang's dime."

Sokka blinked.

"Well, I don't mind if you did, ol' buddy. I may be a monk and not live a life of excess, but that doesn't mean my friends can't, right?" Aang laughed, clapping him on the shoulder before taking the seat on his left.

"I wouldn't say that too loudly if I were you, Aang. It's not wise to show the masses what a child you are," Zuko reproved with a smirk.

"You're just saying that because you're an old fuddy-duddy now, _Dad_," Aang quipped back.

Zuko glared back stonily, but clearly Aang had struck a nerve. "I am _not_ an old fuddy-duddy, Aang. I am an adult, and the Fire Lord, so I act like it."

"Oh, please," Toph interjected, clasping her hands behind her head. The gesture was quite out of place for the extremely elegant restaurant, but what Toph couldn't see with her eyes, she conveniently ignored for her own amusement. "You and Mai barely get out of the palace anymore now that juniorette's out of the womb."

"You have a weird way of saying congratulations," Zuko remarked, arching his right brow.

"I'm just pointing out that you could both stand to remember you're only twenty-one," Toph said with a shrug.

"And you could stand to remember you're not in your usual pub, Toph," Mai retorted, grasping one of Toph's hands and placing it primly in her lap so that Toph's posture was half formal, half casual.

"Jeez, you're already such a mom," Toph replied with a ready sigh. But she smiled and by her own will placed her other hand in her lap to make a matching pair. At this point she stretched her smile wide enough to split her face, and she raised her shoulders and batted her eyelashes. She was the perfect parody of polite amiability, and her friends laughed appreciatively at her joke. Toph laughed, too, and as her face relaxed into a natural, genuine smile, she unknowingly radiated sociable warmth and a gentle prettiness.

This image of her and her joke—the entire conversation, in fact—were all lost on Sokka. He was still staring at the table, mute and blank-faced.

"Sokka, is something wrong?" Katara asked, leaning forward to look around Aang at her brother.

"Nn," Sokka said and did not elaborate. Either "nn" meant "yes", or it was up for open interpretation.

Toph bit her lip. Upon sitting down, she had removed her shoes, as she usually did in the case of nice restaurants, whether or not they had long, draping tablecloths to hide her bare feet. As soon as her toes touched the floor and she sensed the empty seat on Sokka's right, the question had been at the front of her mind, but she had held it back for his sake. Now, fighting to control her apprehensive yet guiltily gleeful emotion, she asked carefully, "Where's Suki?"

"Gone." It was the first word Sokka had said since what he could only refer to in his mind as "the event." "She's gone."

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To Be Continued…

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A/N:

Yeah, so…this is painfully short. I know it is. I had the urge to write something, though, and I want it to be another Tokka fic, so I sat my butt down and wrote this up. It took me about an hour, which is kind of embarrassing, but I have a hard time writing something without editing as I go. So really, an hour's actually pretty good for me, even though I only supplied a couple paragraphs for you guys to read.

Anyway, if I work with a shorter chapter style, then perhaps I will find it easier to update more often in the midst of my very busy grad school life. We shall see.

Any and all reviews are welcome, of course, because feedback is always very encouraging. Unless it's a very mean flame, but whatever; it's interaction with my readers, and that is what I love the most.

For those of you who know me from _Laughter Is Love, So Please Don't Cry_, I sincerely hope you enjoy this new Tokka fic. For those of you who are new to my writing, then I hope the scant paragraphs above are enough to keep you with me for the following chapters. : )

Best Wishes,

~Niach

P.S.

The chapter title is rather depressing, but don't worry—it'll all be better by the end. : )


	2. A SnotNosed Guppy

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Chapter 2

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Love Is…

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…a Snot-Nosed Guppy

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"Gone?" Katara repeated. "You mean she left?"

Sokka nodded solemnly.

"Well, that's nothing to get so beat up over," Aang said cheerfully. "She'll just have to join us for dinner next time."

Sokka's face practically morphed into a guppy's, his eyes wide and watery and his lips puckered up and trembling violently.

Their server inconveniently arrived at that moment to take their order, stealing Sokka's temporary limelight. Everyone but Sokka and Toph flipped open their menus to select their choice dinners for the evening. Mai leaned toward Toph, trying to close the disparity in their heights even while sitting, and asked in a good-natured tone what the other would like to eat.

"Why don't you order for me, Mom?" Toph replied, continuing their joke from before.

"Plate of vegetables, then?" Mai quipped.

"Lady, screw that. I want something with meat on it."

"Oh, like your boyfriend Kosa-kins?" Katara teased from her spot across the table.

"He's not my boyfriend," Toph said, teeth gritting slightly.

"That's not what we've heard," Aang interjected, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Toph couldn't see this wiggle, of course, but she certainly heard the insinuation in his tone.

"No, that's—" she started, but the waiter cut her off.

"Your order, Miss Bei Fong?" he asked.

"Turkeyrat," Toph snapped at him. "With a side of vegetables."

"Oh and, buddy," she added, reaching up, grabbing his bowtie, and yanking him down so he was uncomfortably close to her face—all in one swift motion. "That's 'Miss Bandit' to you."

"Y-yes, miss," he stammered back.

"Miss what?" she tested, staring him down despite her blind glare.

"Miss Bandit."

"Okay." She unclasped her fist, freeing him. "Just so we're clear on that."

The waiter nodded, trying to compose himself but visibly shaking. He was about to hurry off with their order when Toph stopped him again.

"Oh, and one more thing."

He stepped alongside her again, though he seemed loathe to approach her at all.

"Yes, Miss Bandit?"

"Those vegetables I mentioned? Make sure the cook makes 'em more tater, less veg, yeah? We Earthbenders need starch with our protein to keep us fighting fit."

"As you please, miss," he answered, noting her request on the order. "Your appetizers will be ready momentarily." He bowed to the table before quickly retreating.

A tense silence followed his departure. Katara was first to speak.

"Toph, that was unnecessary."

Toph shrugged. "Maybe, but it was funny, though, right?"

"Not really, Toph," Aang murmured, unsurprisingly siding with his girlfriend. "It was just kind of cruel."

Toph's smug smile faltered. "What? I was just messing with the guy. You all know how much I hate people associating me with my family name. Right?" Why were they all suddenly against her on this?

"You're not the only one with imperfect parents, Toph," Zuko put in, not looking up from his tableware, "and you don't see us scorning our legacy." Mai reached over and put her hand on his. Via the subtle vibrations, Toph sensed the gesture of pity or gentle understanding or whatever it was, and it ticked her off.

"Come on, you guys. It was just a joke," she insisted. "It's not like I ruined the guy's life or anything. Sokka, you side with me on this, right?"

_Oh yeah_, everyone realized at the same moment Toph said his name, and the second collective thought that followed was _Suki._

"And we already ordered," Katara lamented by way of apologizing to her brother for forgetting about his girlfriend.

"But, Sokka, didn't you say Suki left?" Aang checked.

"Hn?" Sokka grunted, still sufficiently "out of it", as they say. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, she left." He blinked. "She's gone."

"So…she won't be joining us for dinner…right?" Aang said slowly, assessing the supper situation using his friend's barebones responses.

"Ever again," Sokka added, his bottom lip suddenly trembling again and his eyes re-welling up as well. Guppyface was back, and Sokka was the picture of pitiful at that moment. Anyone watching would have found him utterly adorable in his agony, but this was not the case for his table of friends, who reeled in all directions pointing to "AWAY" as the young man gave a great wail and erupted into sobs, throwing his head into his arms on the table. The entire restaurant seemed to come to a stop with the utter maelstrom of snot and tears occurring at its center.

"Good lord, man, what's wrong with you?" Zuko cried as a great many of Sokka's teardrops shot awry, several landing on the nobleman's plate and napkin and shirt.

"Sokka, what happened?" Katara pressed, the only one at this point willing to brave her brother's soppy circumference and wrap an arm around his shoulders. "Don't tell me…did…did you and Suki break up?"

"Yes!" Sokka bawled, roaring up from his arms to look Katara full in the face with his tear-and-snot-strewn own, as if she would not have seen the truth of his words otherwise.

"Oooh…" Katara eased, trying to evoke sympathy and not disgust in her voice as Sokka's nose dripped runny liquid on her sleeve. "Oooh."

"Oh, man, Sokka. I'm…I'm sorry." That was all Aang could manage as he watched his best friend break down worse than he'd ever seen him do before.

"Me, too, man," Zuko said, feeling slightly guilty for his earlier insensitivity. (Though only slightly, it has to be said, as he frowned at the sight of his wet dinnerware.)

Toph waited quietly for Sokka's anguish to blow over. In a way, his outburst was quite convenient insofar as it had taken their friends' attention away from admonishing her (and really, what was that about?), and in another way—and Toph felt really guilty for thinking this—his misfortune with the break up allowed her finally to have a decent shot at winning his love. Maybe it wasn't ethical. Maybe it didn't make her a good friend. But she'd been waiting all too long—over five years, in fact—for Sokka to be single, just so she could come along and make him, well, _not_. She had every intention of combining her single self with his single self, so the two of them could finally become the couple she was certain they were, and had always been, meant to be.

_I'm sorry for your loss, Sokka_, she thought to herself. _But just think what awesomeness you're—_we're_—about to gain._

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To Be Continued…

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A/N:

So…my version of Toph in this story will be slightly different from my version of Toph in _Laughter is Love_. I'm afraid we have a very immature Tokka on our hands this go-around. Not that I wrote them to be all that mature before, but I think it's time to have some fun with these two young-at-hearts-turning-adult. heh heh

Thank you so much for reading, and please drop a line, review, whatever, to let me know how you think it's going.

Best Wishes,

~Niach

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Note:

At first, I planned for everyone to be in their twenties, and in chapter 1, I mentioned Zuko and Mai's age of 25 as a marker. I've since changed their age to 21, so now Sokka is 20, Katara 18, and Aang and Toph 17. I'm pretty sure that's all correct, but whatever. You guys know what I mean. : )

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Reader Responses:

Sifu Toph:

I'm glad you enjoyed the introduction, and I hope you enjoyed the direction I've taken with it in chapter 2! And thank you for pointing out the in-characterness of everyone, but to be honest, I don't even think that's a mark of my skill as a writer—to me, it's more a mark of the skills of Mike and Bryan, the episode writers, and the voice actors. They characterized everyone so well that it would be hard for me to break character while writing them, if that makes sense. Haha : )

Thecrazinessoftheworld:

Yay! I have writing style! That's definitely a tricky part of writing for me, so it's nice to know I'm making headway. And I will definitely be keeping to the short chapter format. I love sitting down and writing one complete chapter in one go (short though it be). It just feels like an explosion of creativity. I have to edit later, of course, but still! Explosion! :-D

aspideringossamerwebs:

lol! No, I have no desire at all to kill you for starting on my fic! There aren't that many spoilers here so far, really…except for Sokka and Suki...Zuko and Mai…Zuko Fire Lordness…gAangness…yeah. Okay, so there are spoilers, but whatever. I totally appreciate your feedback and encouragement, and I hope you liked this chapter, too! :-D


	3. Sitting on the Side of the Road

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Chapter 3

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Love Is…

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…Sitting on the Side of the Road

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Dinner that night was, to say the least, an awkward affair. Sokka's distress was practically palpable (in Zuko's case, it had even dampened his napkin), and the poor boy was so woebegone he could barely touch his food. He could barely look at it even, he said again and again; though when Zuko grumpily suggested they simply send it back and put it out of its misery already, Sokka vehemently cried, "What about _my_ misery?!" and immediately scarfed the entire plate's contents. This left him literally sick to his stomach, however, instead of just figuratively, and from that point on he had to lay his head on the table and focus on breathing without puking.

"This is just sad," Zuko said eventually, putting down his fork and knife and averting his eyes. "Seriously, this is the first nice dinner out Mai and I have had in several weeks, and what do we get? We get—"

"Zuko, how would you feel if you and Mai split up?" Katara interjected before Zuko said something even less helpful. "You two have been together just as long."

"Longer, actually," Mai corrected. "But you're right, Katara. It would be devastating to loose my Zuklypoops."

Aang choked on his pasta. Toph's eyes lit up gleefully.

"Mai, darling," Zuko sighed, grimacing, a vein in his forehead jumping up violently. "You made a vow to me—one more important than our vow of marriage even—to never. _Ever_. Refer to me by that name in public."

"But Zuko, dear," Mai countered with a sly, sensual grin, "these are our dear friends. Surely you trust them not to—"

"Make fun of you forever until the end of time? You bet, buddy!" Aang promised, chortling in anticipation of mocking his Firebending friend thoroughly—and frequently—in future.

"This is exactly what I mean! The only thing I can trust these people to do is to act like utter children." Zuko shoved back his chair back and stood up. "I'll be in the _men's_ room," he snarled, then elucidated with equal disdain for his listeners, "Because I'm a _grown_ _man_." He threw down his yet damp napkin for emphasis. "Excuse me."

"What's got his panties in a bunch?" Toph muttered, knowing full well Zuko was still within earshot.

"I do _not_ wear _panties!_" he shouted back to them all and immediately regretted it because it is often the case that when one utters something so extremely awkward that he/she would prefer others not to hear it, generally that is precisely when the room falls dead silent just in time to hear each humiliating word rush from the offending orifice. Such a fate befell Fire Lord Zuko, and amidst a mass of snickering coughs and glinting eyes, he stomped off to the bathroom, shoulders hunched and a storm cloud practically materializing above his head, though Waterbender he was not.

"That," Toph said, grinning so wide she couldn't even laugh, "has got to be the funniest thing that has happened to me all year. No lie. It's going to take something Appa-sized to top that."

"You did that on purpose," Katara said, not fooled for a second where her dear, impish friend's antics were concerned.

"Yeah, but do you have a problem with that?" Following their earlier conversation, this may have been a challenge to Katara on Toph's part, but in the mirth of the moment, it was merely a question.

"Well," Katara murmured, unable to suppress her smile. "I mean, I guess I don't. But maybe Mai does…"

"Oh no," Mai said, resting her chin on her hand and gazing half-lidded off in the direction of the men's room. "I find Zuko quite attractive when he has his, as you put it, 'panties in a twist.'" She cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "I find it riotously sexy."

"And that," Aang cut in, signaling for the waiter, "just killed the mood for me. Check please!"

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It took some pushing and pulling to detach Sokka from his sulky seat and out of the restaurant. Mai and Zuko, though friends of Sokka, figured (and figured rightly) that it was best to leave him in the care of Aang, Katara, and Toph. Using their daughter as an alibi, they departed swiftly, Mai winking over her shoulder to Katara and Aang before giving a loving (and lovingly inappropriate) squeeze to her husband's unfailingly pert tush. He jumped and swatted her hand away, but after checking to make sure no one was watching, he returned her lovetap in kind.

Through the subtle vibrations transmitted from their bodies, down to the ground and across to the bottoms of her feet, Toph felt the exchange, and with a swallowed sigh, envied them deeply for both their shared affection and sizzling mutual attraction.

She was not the only one to notice the Fire Lord and Lady's flirtations, however, for Aang had subtly watched the pair out the corner of his eye. He now turned and grinned largely at Katara, leaning close to murmur intimately in her ear, "Seems I can learn a thing or two else from Zuko besides Firebending." And as he had earlier that evening, he wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"Aang…" Katara began, giggling and blushing despite herself before snapping back into caring sister mode. "Aang, Sokka needs us right now."

"If you two don't want to be here, then go," Sokka glowered, plopping down on the curb and digging in his heels. He'd finally become fed up that everyone close to him was so easily ignoring the catastrophic turn his life had taken, and damned if he'd continue bending to their insensitive wills.

"Sorry, Sokka, I was just teasing. You know, lightening the mood and stuff," Aang explained, stepping away from Katara abruptly, hand on the back of his head, giving a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, Aang, I get that," Sokka sighed wearily, refusing to meet their pitying gaze. "But it's okay. You guys can go."

"No, Sokka, really, we're here for you. We—" Katara began, but Sokka interrupted.

"Yeah, you guys are a 'we.' And I'm not anymore. I'm just…an 'I'," he finished lamely. "So if you guys could just leave me alone? That'd be great." And when Katara objected on the point of him making it back to the inn safely, Sokka would have snarled something quite unkind had Toph not interrupted him.

"I'll make sure he gets back safe, Katara," she said. Sokka said nothing for or against this, so Toph nodded as if he had vocally agreed and waved Katara and Aang off along their way.

"We—I…really am sorry about…things, Sokka. Really," Aang stammered. "Give us—me—or Katara—just…give a call when you want to talk about…you know, whatever."

The four friends shared a pause. _Why is this so uncomfortable?_ they all wondered.

"So…" Aang continued, more to fill the awkward silence than anything, "get well soon, buddy."

And with that and a hug from Katara, the two of them turned and left. Toph had thought this was what she wanted, to be alone with Sokka, but suddenly she felt extremely anxious, tongue-tied. Her plan to win her best friend over had seemed so simple before, but now it seemed damn near impossible. What was she supposed to say? What _could _she say?

Luckily, Sokka spoke first.

"'Get well soon?'" he said, repeating Aang's final sentiments with an incredulous, biting laugh. "Is that the only advice my best friend—the god damn Avatar—can give? 'Get well soon?'"

He ran his hand through his hair, from forehead straight back and down to the nape of his neck. He turned his face away from her.

"Just…fuck that."

Toph bit her lip, willing her eyebrows not to knot in the pity she knew he would read in them, the pity she knew, felt, herself to be there. She sat down beside him and let her bangs fall into and mask her face.

"He means the best, Sokka," she comforted in a quiet, steady voice. "They all do. It's just…this is kind of a shock for all of us. I mean, I know that I…I thought I would die before you and Suki ended things."

"Yeah, well, you're still breathing, right?" he rejoined. The bitterness in his voice pierced her chest, and for a second she thought she really might stop breathing.

"Sorry," he said, more as an apology for his tone than for any full awareness of the impact his words had on her. "If anything, I wish I were the one who'd died before me and Suki 'ended things', as you put it."

"Don't say that," Toph murmured. With a shaky hand, she sought to grasp his, but accidentally gripped his knee instead. Awkwardly, hating herself for the blunder, she patted his kneecap. All she wanted to do was reach out and make contact with him, but even something as simple as taking his hand she managed to botch and turn into a clumsy mess.

"Don't worry," he said, misinterpreting the nature of her mixed anxieties. "I don't mean it. Not really."

She couldn't reply, her mind filled as it was with numerous trivial and yet all-important concerns. What was she going to do with her hand? Keep patting his knee? Could she make a move for one of his hands? But where were his hands? What if she accidentally went for his hand and ended up grabbing his groin instead? That would certainly be worse than missing and getting his knee. But maybe it would be better? It would get her point across at least. No, probably not because she'd probably botch that up, too, somehow, and ruin everything. So should she just stay still?

"Oh, Toph," Sokka sighed, her name on his lips and his breath brushing warmly down to her cheek, extracting her from her compulsive thoughts. In a graceless movement, and yet with a grace-touched tenderness that made her heart jump to her throat, Sokka turned toward her, their knees bumping, and laid his head atop her own. He was so close she could smell him. Warm, almost earthy. To her he didn't smell like anyone else. Just Sokka.

_This is a perfect moment_, she felt.

And it was for that moment, but after a pause, Sokka broke the silence.

"You're lucky, you know," he said. This time his breath missed her cheek and hit her bangs and the tip of her nose instead. "You don't know what it's like to have your heart broken."

He didn't know it, lost as he was in his own wrecked world and only able to look out at her and everything else through the glassy, warped shards of a ruined lens, but this was the least perfect thing he could have said to her in that moment. Because not only were his words untrue, but they—rather, he—swiftly undid all her hopes for them, for what seemed the millionth time.

And while Sokka's broken heart temporarily distorted reality, Toph's own showed her the very real truth she could not escape: she might be with Sokka right now in this time and place, and side-by-side, head-to-head, he might be physically closer to her than he'd been in years—but there was still a huge gulf between them.

And that gulf's name was still, and would probably always be, Suki.

"Sokka?" she uttered when her ability to breathe returned.

"Yeah?"

"Your definition of luck sucks."

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To Be Continued…

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A/N:

Aw, this started out as such a fun chapter, and then it turned quite sad. I think I even bummed myself out.

But no matter. Things will just have to perk up for next chapter. That's what I'll aim for, anyway. No telling what I'll end up writing, though. Seriously, oftentimes, I don't even know what I mean to write until I end up writing it. So…I guess we'll all just have to stay tuned! If you guys are sticking around, that is, and I certainly hope you are!

Smiles and best wishes,

~Niach

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Review Responses:

aspideringossamerwebs: After five years, Toph would certainly be a go-getter for Sokka's attentions, I think! Haha But I think that's more her attitude, and then once she's in the actual situation, her nerve falters a bit. Or completely. We shall continue to see… : )

Sifu Toph: I'm glad you've enjoyed the play between lightheartedness and the dramatics so far, and I hope you liked it in this chapter as well. It's hard not to go too much toward either extreme (or to make either tone an extreme, for that matter), so I hope I've pulled it off okay here. I really, really appreciate your awesome feedback because it's super insightful and always helpful. : )


	4. Self Sacrifice

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Chapter 4

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Love Is…

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…Self-Sacrifice

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Sokka and Toph sat in this fashion outside the restaurant for a long while, each silent, each brooding about the frustrations and disappointments life had dealt him/her. Neither particularly liked his/her hand of cards at the moment, and sitting out on the street curb with a close friend—essentially doing nothing to incur Fortune's ill graces any further—seemed their best bet. So, as the minutes then hours passed, and group after group of fine dining patrons hobbled home drunk on wine and full of food, Sokka and Toph took comfort that even though they were both miserable on the inside, at least to all the strangers moving around them, they looked as if they, together, belonged there, too.

Sometime after midnight, Sokka finally stood and stretched. It was not the pleasant pull of the body that comes after, for instance, a cat nap; instead, it was the exhausted flexing of one who pushes on with his day only because he isn't dead yet. Toph noted this from the unbroken silence: his usual contented sigh with and after a nice stretch was missing. Almost as if to replace it, she gave a sigh of her own, but it came out just as joylessly tired as his stretch.

"Come on, Toph," Sokka murmured, taking her hand in his. "I'll walk you home."

Her throat dry from not talking, Toph started to croak out a weak "okay," but realizing it was useless, merely nodded and got to her feet to stand beside him. And as she did, he took her hand, just for a moment, as if to steady her as she rose. Pinkess entered her cheeks.

_It's gestures like that that make me fall in love with you_, she told him silently with a gentle squeeze. But fighting down the optimism bubbling up from her spirited heart, she forced herself to face the reality of the situation: he would still have taken her hand even if he and Suki hadn't broken up. He was just that kind of guy. He was a good friend. It didn't have anything to do with any deep-seated feelings for her.

_But still…maybe…_

She could have slapped herself for hoping.

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Elsewhere, a certain newly single Kyoshi Warrior rested her arms against the rails circling the deck of a passenger ship. She had her head tipped back and eyes taking in the vast expanse of sea and sky, the daily line between them indecipherable now in the comfortingly crushing yet open dark. Before the actual breakup, she had put much thought and consideration into why she and Sokka were and were not working out, and she had known then as much as she did now that she had no regrets about any part of their relationship: not that it had happened, not that it hadn't worked out, not for the years—_years_—they'd spent together, etc. None of it was a waste, not one single day. But still…regret and guilt were not the same thing. She really hated that she had hurt him. But she'd had to, she knew, for both their sakes.

The first years of their relationship they had spent living on entirely different continents. While Suki joined her fellow Kyoshi Warriors upon the return to their home island, Sokka enjoyed his own homecoming, helping his father and the rest of the Southern Water Tribe restore their former lives and community, still a small town, but a whole one in any case. Eventually Sokka felt the need to move on to bigger and greater things as he'd enjoyed while adventuring all over the world with the Avatar, so he traveled to the Earth Kingdom to put his engineering skills and knowledge to use, working with a team of native Earthbbenders and expatriate Firebenders to develop trade between the nations. Though happy to pursue an education and his own engineering curiosities, Sokka hoped his efforts with them might one day open up possibilities for his own Southern Water Tribe.

And, of course, by living and working in the Earth Kingdom, he could earn more money for himself and Suki to start their life together. That plan unfolded quite nicely for the couple over the many months Sokka labored diligently, gaining increasing job responsibilities while seeing Suki only infrequently and his friends and family even less. As far as any of them knew, really, all was well and had been going well for the pair. Suki eventually joined Sokka on the Earth Kingdom's main continent, and the two established a happy enough life for themselves; but Sokka's work hours never seemed to decrease, and Suki, though happy to be with him and in a big, lively city, began more and more to miss the familiarity of her old home and friends.

"I miss my Warriors," she would tell Sokka during the few private moments they shared together in their small home.

"Why?" he would ask, stretching out his legs and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they relaxed on the couch. "The war's over. No one needs warriors anymore. We can all just move on and live normal lives!"

Suki knew that Sokka, like her, had been and still was a warrior at heart. But his situation had been decidedly different from her own. His training and combat had been for a very specific goal: to help the Avatar defeat Fire Lord Ozai. Her training and combat, by contrast, were a way of life. And every time he failed to understand her point of view—that it _was_ a way of life and that she _needed _it—and every time he cursorily explained away her troubles with oversimplified A-leads-to-B-and-B-leads-to-C reasoning, she felt more and more trapped in their life together.

But she also saw what a sweet, responsible, well-meaning young man he was, so very caring in so many other respects. He was, in his way, doing his best to make her happy, working as much as possible to build the perfect life for them to share. So he ignored what she told him and assumed she felt the same as he did. So he tried to take the actions of an adult but used childish reasoning to back him up. What it all boiled down to and the conclusion she kept coming to was this: that it was all because he loved her so much.

And how could she take issue with that?

In this way several relatively happy years passed with their relationship still going quite strong. What Sokka did not realize at that time, however, nor did he understand it yet, was that this happiness was all thanks to Suki, as she again and again suppressed her inner tensions for the benefit of them both.

Only recently had those strangled hopes and desires unearthed themselves, forcing Suki to make the decision that undoubtedly hurt each of them, but was long past due nonetheless. The one kindness she felt she could do for him was to end things on their trip to the Fire Nation Capital, so at least he would have his friends to help him through his hard time. She had a hard time before her as well, and she would spend it traveling from the Fire Nation back to Kyoshi Island, her home and the only place in the world she wanted to be right now.

**

**

Neither Sokka nor Toph spoke on the walk to the latter's apartment. Only when they arrived did Toph finally (and with a clear throat) break the silence between them.

"I shouldn't have let you walk me home. I told Katara I would make sure you got back to the inn okay."

"Katara needs to remember who the older sibling is," Sokka grumbled, though in a calmer tone than earlier that evening. "I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, I know that, but…" Toph broke off, trying to find the courage and words to make her proposal. "But you could stay at my place tonight. If you want. I mean…it's no trouble."

Sokka gave a half smile and ruffled her short hair in a brotherly gesture. "I appreciate it, and thanks. But I think I'll head back to the inn. I hear they're supposed to have a killer continental breakfast."

Boldly, Toph tried again. "_I_ could make you breakfast."

Sokka burst into laughter at this. "Yeah, right! We both know what your cooking skills are like, Toph. And that would be 'non-existent.'"

Toph frowned in reply, but couldn't deny his appraisal of her deficient culinary merits.

"Okay, well, just make sure you don't eat your heart out gorging on inn food. You might be heartbroken, but that doesn't mean you have to destroy your gut," she teased, pretending to punch him in the stomach.

Sokka colored at the term "heartbroken" and only managed a feeble and rather confused return joke about having learned the difference between chocolate chips and monkeyrat poops on muffins from buffet lines. To save them both further embarrassment, Toph quickly changed the subject before the entire conversation could fall apart and Sokka reenter his earlier dejected state.

"Will you come by tomorrow morning?" she asked instead. "I, um, wanna see you before you leave."

Sokka and his wit welcomed this shift in topic, and he quipped back, "Well, if I can't leave until you see me, then I'd have to live here the rest of my life or yours just waiting for a miracle to happen."

He chuckled at his wit as Toph turned pink.

She used the last of her courage and said softly, "Maybe that wouldn't be so bad."

Sokka's chuckle fell short. He didn't know how to respond to this, so he pretended he hadn't heard.

"I'll come by tomorrow then. Early, probably," he considered, then explained, "I figure I'll come back for another visit soon, so no need really to say goodbye to Aang and Katara."

He paused.

"So if you could just not mention my departure plans to them…"

"No problem, I gotcha," Toph said quickly. "It'll just be me here in the morning. I promise."

"Cool," Sokka said, then repeated for lack of a better segue, "Cool… Okay, well, see you in the morning then."

"Okay. And, um, Sokka?"

It turned out she had a bit more courage left after all, and it propelled her two steps forward, the two steps required to close the distance between them. She hugged him with her whole body, her chest pressed awkwardly into his midsection, such was the extent of their height difference.

_I'm sorry for your pain_ was what she wanted to say, but her throat (conveniently? unfortunately?) had gone dry again. So she just wrapped her arms around him as much as she could, trying to squeeze her emotions into him.

Sokka welcomed the hug and patted her head.

"Thanks, Toph," he said in an undertone.

She could have gone on hugging him all night and even forever, she though, but a few seconds later he shifted slightly, signaling the end of their embrace. Toph stepped back from him, blushing, her head down and the short locks obscuring her eyes. Sokka rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment in a wordless farewell before he turned and left.

As he walked down the street in the direction of his inn and the double room he would be occupying alone, Toph stayed standing outside her equally empty apartment, feeling his fading vibrations until the night swallowed him up and he was gone.

**

**

To Be Continued…

**

**

A/N:

Aw, this chapter is such a downer compared to the previous one. But I needed to develop s'more angst with Toph and Sokka (and Suki, as it happened!) before further shenanigans can take the stage. And O' how the shenanigans return and take the spotlight in the next chapter. Haha

Thanks to all for reading this fic and adding it to their Story Alerts and Favorites and such. I'm absolutely ecstatic over every notification email FFnet sends me, and just to let everyone know, I so appreciate these actions on your all's parts…but I would be equally appreciative of and ecstatic for reading your words! Writers love words, after all, and hearing back from you guys is half the fun! : )

Also, I apologize for not updating last Friday. I was on spring break, and for the first half a friend from Japan came to visit and we had oodles of fun…and then for the second half I caught up on all the sleep I missed the days previous! Lol

Thanks again to all of you for reading! Writing a fanfic and having readers keeps me sane during the final months of the academic year, for real. (^.^')

Best Wishes,

~Niach

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**

Reader Response:

Sifu Toph: You're totally spot on with Toph's character. As soon as she heard Sokka was for sale, she was pumped at the chance to snatch him right off the market again. But Toph cares more about Sokka as a person than she does as a thing filling the role of "boyfriend", so she's quite conflicted right now. Or was, rather. At the end of this chapter, she's realized she has to try to be more mature about the situation for his sake. Oh, Sokka, what a lucky guy to have women around you who love you so much! And it probably won't (read: absolutely will NOT) happen with Suki in this fic, but I think we might (read: WILL) see Toph get the happy ending she deserves here. ; )

Flames Chaos and Wolf: Wee! I'm glad you're back into the Airbender-ness, and I'm super, super glad you came across and enjoyed my fic! I hope your return stay in the fandom is long, and I also hope to hear back from you again! (^u^)

CommanderApple: Sadly, Sokka won't be getting a grip anytime soon. But until then, O the punishments he shall endure for taking his sweet, sweet time in the Toph department. XD


	5. A Short Fuse

**

Chapter 5

**

Love Is…

**

…A Short Fuse

**

**

Sokka did not come by the next morning, nor did he appear by midday. Toph's patience only lasted to a point in all matters, and for those concerning Sokka, the fuse was considerably shorter. After giving him what she felt was more than enough time to sleep in, enjoy the continental, and get his act together, she headed to his hotel that afternoon to track him down.

"A young guy, huh?" the innkeeper, a stout middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, repeated thoughtfully, tracing through a mental checklist of his current guests. "We've got a lot of those right now. What's your fellow look like?"

Toph's neutral lips shifted uncomfortably into a decided frown. "Wish I could tell ya," she said, turning her face up to his so he could see her blank eyes and get the picture.

"Oh, my apologies," he replied quickly and not with a little embarrassment. "Well, how about this? I can go check our records and see if this Sokka of yours is still lodging with us."

"That would be great. Thanks," she said, and felt the vibrations of the innkeeper cross from the lobby's desk into the back office. Much to her temptation, the flooring consisted of clay tiles. As she waited for the innkeeper to return, she fought the urge to just give a solid stomp to find out whether or not Sokka was even in the building. But tiles tended to scatter, and she didn't want to leave a mess for the hotel to clean up. Much less, moreover, did she want to clean it up herself.

Fortunately for them both, the innkeeper returned quickly with the needed information.

"Originally we had him down for two days, one night, but he told room service this morning he didn't have plans to leave just yet," he explained to the anxious Earthbender.

"Is he still here then? In his room, I mean," she clarified.

"That I don't know, miss," he admitted.

"I'll check his room then, if that's okay."

"That's not a problem at all. Shall I—"

"What room number is it?" she interrupted.

"Er, it's room 304," he said, a bit taken aback by her haste.

"Great. Thanks for your help," she said and headed for the stairs.

"You're welcome," he called after her, still slightly confused but altogether amused.

"What an eager young lady," he said to himself, returning to his daily bookkeeping. "And forthright, too."

He made a few marks on the parchment. Then he hesitated.

It suddenly occurred to him that the young blind teen had walked off without any further direction or assistance. Had she visited this hotel before? He didn't remember her…

"Well, guess I'm getting old," he shrugged to himself, and returned to his work.

**

**

Toph found Sokka easily enough as she strolled down the third floor hallway. Even during Sokka's various growth spurts over his teenage years and now in his twenties, Toph prided herself for always recognizing the vibrations his body emitted. In many ways she knew the feel of his presence better than she did the back of her own hand.

She knocked on the proper door and waited.

No response.

_He's ignoring me_, she realized._ Well, what's a gal to do?_

So she smacked the door's lock, Metalbending it out so fast it shot across the room and struck the opposite wall. The door opened quite easily after that.

But as Toph stepped inside, she smelled something off. "Off" insofar as it stunk to high heaven of booze and body odor.

With another step, she fully ascertained the situation. Sokka was lying on his back across his futon, staring at the ceiling fan turn turn turn. Toph would bet money he had neither shaved nor showered at all in the past twenty-four hours, and when her foot brushed against one, and then another, empty glass bottle on the floor, she was sure of it. She kicked the bottle aside, sending it clinking into a mass of its fallen brethren.

"Well, aren't you a pretty sight," she greeted him wryly.

"Toph," he said, not so much for salutation, but as a show of recognition. "Didjoo know thijs place hazzuh _minibar?_"

"Now I do," she muttered, stepping over to sit beside him on the futon.

"It's like they knew," Sokka was saying, not particularly listening to her response. "Thiz place just _gets_ me, you know? They just…_knew_, you know whud I mean? They just _knew_ I needed some _beer_ because my girljfrend _dumped_ me yejsterday, and now I'm all _alone_. They _knew._"

"Yeah, and by the smell of you, everyone on the third floor is gonna know, too," she observed with not a little scorn.

The young man sighed wearily, and she felt pity take hold.

"Sokka," she said more gently this time, placing her hand on his forehead. "Are you okay?"

She felt his brow lower into an indignant frown.

"What do _you_ think?" he asked, the words crisp through the drunken curtain subduing his tongue before.

She ignored his tone and brushed stray hairs from his face, tucking them with their kith behind his ear. Then, blushing, she retracted her hand and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin in the space between her knees.

"I think," she began, her eyes staring over him to the wall across, "you should do this thing right if you're gonna do it." The corner of her mouth pricked up, anticipating the larger grin should he accept her proposal.

"I think," she said again, "we should take this pity party out to the streets and drown your sorrows in some good ol' Fire Nation Capital carousing."

Sokka's face brightened instantly.

"Yesj!" he said without a second thought. "Yesj! Thatsjuh _awesjome_ idjea!"

He clambered woozily to his feet, his concentration split between coordination and exclamation.

"Toph! Toph, it'sj like you _know_."

"Yeah, how about that?" she said, chuckling at the state of him.

"You sjtay here, okay? I'm gonna go get clean," he announced.

Toph shook her head and laughed. "You do that, buddy," she said.

At the door, an ominous hiccup stopped him. Toph grimaced.

"M'gonna barf," he announced.

"Yeah…" Toph made a face. "Do that, too."

**

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To Be Continued…

**

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A/N:

Gah! This chapter is pretty short, but still caused me SO much trouble. I was going to update yesterday on my lunch break at work, but found the file didn't save properly on my flash drive. So I checked it on my laptop at home, and wtf, for some reason it didn't save as a Word document. I don't even know what it saved as because my computer didn't know what program to use to open it.

Luckily, I had an earlier draft saved, but the problem with an earlier draft is that it's not a final draft, so I had to revise it into a final draft before I could actually post it. So now I'm posting it, much to my relief. I have several fanfic projects going all at once right now, and as it's the last few weeks of classes and I've two 20-page papers and a 7-pager approaching fast, well…let's just say I might not update next week. Then again, I might. It depends on just how much I allow myself to procrastinate on academically related things.

*sigh*

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, brief as it is, and I hope you'll look forward to Chapter 5. It may not be up next Friday, but it will be posted within the next two weeks. It's not a promise; it's a fact.

Thanks for your understanding and patience!

Best Wishes,

~Niach

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**

Reader Response:

Flames Chaos and Wolf: Yay! Please do stick around! I most certainly will be. : )

Night with glowing stars: Updated! And though the next update may be slightly delayed, it will certainly come as well! :-D

Liefkai: I'm not a big Suki fan myself, but that's more because of her getting paired with Sokka. She's fine on her own, just not awesome enough to get with a lead character. Lol Mai, though, is totally cool enough to get with Zuko, and she is a little OOC in this, I suppose, but I like to think that she's come out of her shell quite a bit since becoming a ruler and getting to know the gAang better. :-3

Sifu Toph: Poor Toph and her vulnerability!! I know I'm the one writing her that way, but you pointing it out makes me sad for her. Lol Things will get better soon, though, for shenanigans are ahead, and they shall distract us briefly from her broken heart! :-D


	6. A Bar Fight

Chapter 6

Love Is…

…A Bar Fight

"I love the Fire Nation!"

"What?"

"I shaid I love the Fire Nation!"

"I can't hear you!"

"I LOVE THE FIRE NATION!"

"_Oh!_" Toph shouted back over the live band's thunderous music blasting from the stage and echoing off the opposite wall. Then, when it suddenly dawned on her just how drunk they both were, she erupted into a cackling laughter.

"I should move here!" Sokka continued, dancing (read: flailing about) to the heart-pounding beat. "I should move here and live here! Because I love the Fire Nation! And it lovesh me back! Woooo!"

"Yesh, it does!" Toph shouted back, dancing (read: reeling) alongside him. "It lovesh you SHO MUCH!"

"I know!"

"Like, it lovesh you more than you love meat!"

"I know!"

"More than you love sarcashm!"

"I know!"

"But you know what? What it doeshn't love you more than?" Toph burst into another fit of giggles.

"_Me!_" she finally managed, gasping for air. "Cuz I love you SHO SHO MUCH! Even though you love Shuki! For _five long years!_ Isn't that _hysterical?_"

She dissolved into giggles again.

"Hey!" she cried around her mirth. "Hey! Why aren't you laughing? Isn't that funny? Sokka? I said, isn't that—"

It was then she noticed that Sokka was no longer beside her and that she had drunkenly confessed her love to a wall of sweaty gyrating strangers.

She scowled darkly, cheeks turning pink and eyebrow twitching.

"Sokka, damn it, I'm going to kill you," she grumbled and marched off in search of him.

She didn't have too far to look: as soon as she extracted herself from the dance floor's pull into the no man's land just before the bar, she felt his presence slumpishly propped against the counter's routinely polished surface.

"Snoozly-kins, whaddaya think yer doin', runnin' off without me like that?" she half-teased, half-chastised, clambering atop a barstool for the specific purpose of delivering an amiable but firm punch to Sokka's bicep.

"Ouch! Toph—" he started, but a female voice interrupted him.

"Oh, you're here with someone. Well…" A regretful pause. "It was nice meeting you, Sokka. Give me a call if you're ever, ah…"

She paused again, and Toph, wobbling a bit from her perch on the barstool, felt the girl give her a not uncritical onceover.

"…free," she finished, an unkind smirk evident even in her voice. Much to the girl's fortune, she walked off then, only narrowly avoiding Toph's wrath (and a drunken Toph's wrath at that).

"Bitch," she spit after her, and for good measure made a face at her retreating form.

"Toph, what the hell?" Sokka sputtered, his capacity for words returning. "She was totally hitting on me!"

"So? You heard what she said," Toph countered, unable to keep a slight smile from her lips. "You're here with me."

"Yeah, but I'm not here _with_ you," Sokka argued. "You're my friend, and I love you, but we're not _together_. She was a stranger. A very pretty stranger…"

He fell into momentary reverie of just what else she was.

Toph was, as usual, blunt in her assessment. "She was a skank and a rebound, Sokka."

"Exactly!" he cried. "Two very good reasons for you not to butt in on my game!"

"Your _game?_" Toph barked back. "What game? You dated the same girl for five years! That's not game, that's luck!"

"Hey, I've dated other girls, too!" he shouted in his defense.

"Yeah, that Yue chick," Toph said, rolling her eyes. "_Who became the freaking moon!_ No way does that count!"

"How can you say that?" Sokka cried, recoiling as if on Yue's behalf, horror-struck as if offended for her sake.

But this was not the (drunken) case.

"If anything, she counts _double_ for being the moon! Hell, Yue counts _triple! Quadruple! Fiveduple!_"

"Fiveduple isn't a word, dumb ass."

"If I say it is, then _it is!_"

"If _you_ say it is, then it most definitely _isn't!_"

"ARGH!" Sokka shouted, his fist and teeth clenched and his eyebrows going crazy with rage on his forehead. "Toph, seriously, if you weren't a girl…"

"What?" she challenged, fists balled at her sides. "What? You'd hit me? Ha! Just try it, weepy willow boy! I can take you any damn day I please."

A wave of self-hatred rushed through her, and she berated herself for pushing the argument to this level. But it was like she couldn't help it. She'd spent her formative years communicating in crude tournament-style taunts, and she loved those jeers as a form of art. Her championship belt be damned, though, if her verbal sparring skills didn't get her into worse fights than anything else did. She knew it; she could see it.

And though she knew she'd hate herself even more for it in the morning, right here and now she was going to finish what she'd started.

"No, Toph, I'm not going to do that," Sokka said angrily. Her behavior was beyond baffling now.

"Why? Why won't you? Because I'm a girl?" she spat.

"No, because you're a friend." What the heck was wrong with her?

She couldn't accept that. She couldn't take that for an answer.

"You'd hit me if I were Aang," she pushed. "If Aang pissed you off, you'd sucker punch him in a heartbeat."

"I would not!" he denied. "Toph, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Oh, me? Nothing. Nothing's wrong with me. I just want to know just what it is that's keeping you from hitting me. Because I'm a girl? Because I'm a friend? Really, Sokka, what the hell's keeping you from hauling off and 'sokka'-ing me in the face?"

"Why do you keep talking about me punching you? Do you seriously _want _me to hit you or something?"

"OR SOMETHING!" Toph exploded. "'Or something', you idiot!"

Okay, she'd completely lost him now. He was about to chalk her insanity up to "That Time of the Month" when she continued in a heated rage:

"Because I'm not just a girl, and I'm not just your friend! Good lord, is it really that hard to figure out?"

"Figure what out?"

This time it was Toph who erupted into a loud sentiment of ARGH.

"How thick is your skull, seriously? How much bone is there between that pea-sized brain of yours and that so-called Water Tribe wolf's tail you got going on—"

But then Toph came to an abrupt halt. She had reached up to rap on the same skull her tongue railed against, but her knuckles found something missing. And when she unclenched her fist and probed further, first with one flat hand and then the other, she found something completely _absent_.

"Sokka…" she said slowly, not believing her next words, "…what happened to your hair?"

To Be Continued…

A/N:

And here is Chapter 6! Sorry for the delay since the last update, but I hope this chapter was entertaining enough for the wait to be worth it. I haven't much else to say at the moment except for thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter / the story thus far. : )

Happy June, everyone!

~Niach


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